He was concerned with exactly the same problem, yes.Īlthough in my recollection of studying him at university, he didn’t think that the law was there to curb tyranny. Hobbes was also concerned with the curtailing of violent human instincts. Let’s move on to Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.
Most people I suspect read the Oresteia in the Penguin Classics versions or the Oxford Classics translation. It’s rich in subtle synonyms and metaphors, and therefore hard to convey in the kind of down-to-earth language that is now fashionable for translators. In many translations, you won’t get the beauty of the language. It’s profound, it’s intense, it’s dramatic and, above all, the language is exceptionally beautiful. It’s not just an allegory of law-the Oresteia is also one of the greatest achievements of human civilization. It is something that constrains the activities of men and spares them the tyranny of arbitrary violence. The great phrase of Athena in the translation that I use is “let no man live uncurbed by law or curbed by tyranny”, which is a very exact description of the function of law. Now, that’s a very crude and short summary of a play which is really a very profound analysis of the process by which law comes to restrain the violent instincts of men and replaces capricious violence and despotism with something more ordered and predictable. The outcome is that Orestes is acquitted by Athena’s casting vote. His second defence is that Apollo told him to do it-superior orders. His first defence is that Clytemnestra had it coming to her because she murdered Agamemnon.
Athena, the goddess of wisdom, puts an end to the cycle of lawlessness and violence and anarchy by founding a court to decide whether Orestes has a defence.
The supreme philosophy of man the laws of life trial#
The Eumenides is about the trial of Orestes for the murder of his mother. “I think that Mill would have deplored the pressures created by social media to conform to particular ideas.” They were creatures of hideous aspect who hunted sinners from their communities. In Greek mythology, avenging injustice was the job of the Furies. So this is a world in which justice is vengeance. Their son Orestes is then commanded by Apollo to avenge his father’s murder by killing Clytemnestra, which he does. He returns 10 years later and his wife, Clytemnestra, kills him to avenge the killing of their daughter. Agamemnon, king of Argos, sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, to persuade the gods to send him a favourable wind to conquer Troy. The first two plays are essentially a reprise of the Homeric legend. The critical part of it is in the third play of the trilogy, The Eumenides. It’s about the creation of courts as an alternative to anarchy and despotism. It’s about the replacement of a world in which justice meant vengeance by a world in which you have a serious investigation of the facts and an examination of the relevant law. The Oresteia is an immense political and legal allegory. This is a trilogy of plays-what do they tell us about the rule of law? Let’s explore those questions as we look at the books.
Foreign Policy & International Relations.